Pinch hitter Ryan Williams’ RBI single in extra innings lifted CSUF baseball over UC Irvine 7-6 and gave the Titans their first road sweep since they swept Hawaii in 2015.

The single was Williams’ first hit as a Titan.

“It’s easy to go up there and feel confident when you have a bunch of guys behind you that know you’re going to do it,” Williams told CSUF Sports Media.

Fullerton led 6-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. Irvine scored two runs in the inning to cut CSUF’s lead to one.

In the following inning, Anteaters second baseman Cole Kreuter tied up the score with a solo home run off of Titans pitcher Blake Workman. Brett Conine replaced Workman after walking the next batter.

Conine held the Anteaters to three hits while striking out four batters over his 3.1 innings pitched. Fullerton’s offense did just enough to squeeze out the win in the final inning.

Third baseman Brett Borgogno described Williams’ hit as “huge” and confirmed that the dugout had his back during the game.

Williams said coming off of the bench is difficult but he got the job done when it mattered.

“You sit and have a chance to get cold and you can kind of get out of the game. But it’s important for us to stay locked-in and stay with the dugout and the team. It keeps me ready to go,” Williams said.

CSUF has no midweek game but it will travel to face UC Davis on Friday, May 4 at 2:30 p.m. Williams is confident the Titans can keep playing at a high level in the conference.

“Even though we took the series yesterday, we wanted to put some distance between us and the rest of the league,” Williams told CSUF Sports Media. “I think this puts us in a good position to take this momentum and keep it going.”

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